Mohamed Keita

Mohamed Keita is advocacy coordinator for CPJ's Africa Program. Keita has written about independent journalism and development in sub-Saharan Africa for publications including The New York Times and Africa Review, and has appeared on NPR, the BBC, Al-Jazeera, and Radio France Internationale. Keita has also given presentations on press freedom at the World Bank, U.S. State Department, and universities. Follow him on Twitter: @africamedia_CPJ.

2012

Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu Ahmed, government spokesman
and censor-in-chief of the Red Sea nation, has been invisible in the past few
weeks. The total absence of any independent press in Eritrea has allowed the
government to maintain complete silence in the face of mounting questions and
surging Internet rumors of his defection.

It was on November 17 that U.K.-based Eritrean opposition news
website Assena first reported,
citing unnamed sources, that Ali had sought asylum in Canada. Ten days later, Madote, a pro-government site, dismissed
the Assena report and claimed, citing
unnamed witnesses who reported by phone, that Ali was "seen walking in the
capital and discussing with citizens."

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Ethiopians awakened this morning to state
media reports that Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi, 57, the country's leader for 21 years, had died late
Monday in an overseas hospital of an undisclosed disease. Within seconds, Ethiopians
spread the news on social
media;
within minutes, international news media were issuing bulletins. Finally, after
weeks of government silence and obfuscation over Meles' health, there was
clarity for Ethiopians anxious for word about their leader. Still, it was left
to unnamed sources to fill in even the basic details. Meles died in a Brussels
hospital of liver cancer, these sources told international news organizations,
and he had been ill for many months.

"Death of yet another African leader highlights secrecy & lack of transparency when it comes to ailing leaders," CNN's Faith Karimi noted on Twitter, where the hashtag #MelesZenawi was trending globally.

On Wednesday, the same day the White
House announced a strategic plan committing the United States to elevating its efforts in "challenging leaders whose actions threaten the
credibility of democratic processes" in sub-Saharan Africa, a senior
member of the U.S. Congress challenged the
erosion of press freedom in a key U.S. strategic partner in the Horn of Africa:
Ethiopia.

South African journalist and arts critic Charl Blignaut made
what turned out to be an excellent prediction. "Of all the work on show, it's
this depiction of the president that will set the most tongues wagging and most
likely generate some howls of disapproval," he wrote on May 13 in a review of
an art exhibition in Johannesburg.

Two members of the U.S. Congress, a
Republican and a Democrat, have publicly voiced indignation at Ethiopia's persecution of
journalists
under the leadership of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, with both declaring that
stability and security are enhanced by press freedom.

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While Mali remains in
global headlines with a March 22 military coup and rebel claims of an
independent state, citizens in Equatorial Guinea are kept in the dark about the
crisis unless they have access to international media, CPJ has gathered from
interviews with journalists and a government spokesman.

Last week's unexpected coup d'etat in Mali
somewhat overshadowed, in the international news cycle, a relatively peaceful
transition of power in the neighboring democracy of Senegal. In a second-round
vote, opposition leader Macky Sall on Sunday defeated his former mentor,
85-year-old incumbent President Abdoulaye Wade; and while European Union
observers deplored some irregularities, they largely praised the election
and the Senegalese news media for a "positive role" in informing voters.

Yesterday, while reporting on breaking news in Mali from studios in Atlanta, CNN Wire Newsdesk Editor Faith Karimi made an ominous observation that presaged the outcome of developments unfolding 5,000 miles away. "#Mali president @PresidenceMali has not tweeted in 10 hours after reports of gunfire and a coup attempt," she tweeted.

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Protesters
in Nigeria are not only angry at their government's New Year's Day decision to eliminate
a fuel subsidy -- they are also upset about news media coverage of the
citizens' movement, dubbed "Occupy Nigeria," and have taken their protests to
local media outlets.